Notifications & Messages

Hey - It’s time to join the thousands of other dealer professionals on DrivingSales. Create an account so you can get full access to the articles, discussions and people that are shaping the future of the automotive industry.

How to Drive Mobile App Downloads with Functionality Users Trust

I was shopping in Target the other day with my 3 year old when a gentleman commented, “Wow, does she really know how to use that?” I looked down to see my daughter playing with “her” iPhone (ok technically it’s my old iPhone 3 that can still muster enough strength for some great apps, but I digress) and I was like, “oh… um… yeah, she can.”

My daughter can play with an iPhone because it’s easy to use; easy enough for a 3 year old, and if you want customers to download your app then you need to make it easy too. And part of making it easy is giving them functionality they trust, like Smart App Banners.

Now, my 3 year old doesn’t worry about clicking on a random pop-up that prompts her to download the $4.99 Disney Princess Royal Salon app because she is still trusting in nature (and desperate to be a princess), where as those of us over the age of 13 had our trusting nature shattered somewhere in middle school and only a few of us got to be princesses (damn you Kate Middleton!), but again, I digress. The point I’m trying to make (you thought I didn’t have one for a minute there didn’t you) is that consumers need to TRUST that what they click on is not a scam, and Smart App Banners are the best way to do that.

Smart App Banners are small rectangular banners that can display across the top of your mobile website that prompt a visitor to download your mobile app. The Banners are technically only an Apple functionality, however you can easily get similar functionality for Android devices with a slight variation of code. Smart App Banners greatly improve a user’s browsing experience compared to other promotional methods, as Apple has provided a consistent look and feel for these banners across the web, and users have come to trust that these banners will take them to the App Store and not a third-party site. Users appreciate that banners show up unobtrusively at the top of a webpage, instead of a full-screen ad interrupting the web content.

App Banners are super easy to add to your website. Your web admin just needs to add a small snippet of code (that can be found online) to your website and you’re good to go. And if the app is already installed on the user’s device, the Smart App Banner can intelligently change its action to open the app instead. Also if the device loading the banner does not support your app, or if your app is not available in the user's location, the banner will not display.

The bottom line is that Smart App Banners are one of the best ways to drive downloads for your mobile app. Now, you may run into a situation where your mobile website vendor (who created your mobile site and thinks it’s just the best thing ever) doesn’t want to drive traffic away from your mobile site to your mobile app vendor (who created your mobile app and thinks it’s just the best thing ever). Only you know why you have both and that’s to give your customers the experience that works best for them. So give them the choice right up front to continue to surf your site or download your app. If they trust in the functionality, which they will with the Smart App Banner, then you’ve given them an experience almost as great as the Disney Princess Royal Salon is to a 3-year old; an experience that’s easy, fun, and gets them that much closer to getting everything they want out of life… whether it’s a great mobile app or their handsome prince.